(image via bythepeople-themovie)
The Nation editor -- and The Corsair's former boss -- Katrina VanDen Heuvel was on NPR's Brian Lehrer show this morning. She spoke about progressives’ hopes for an Obama administration and about policy toward Russia.
In a conversation yesterday with John Bennett, staff writer for Defense News, Lehrer yesterday ended the conversation wondering whether the Obama who talked tough on Russia during the campaign against McCain is the President Obama that we will see come January. Vanden Heuvel, who has been a Russian observer since her years at Princeton, was prompted to book her appearance on NPR after listening to yesterday's Lehrer show.
"Barack Obama has the ability ... his first instinct after the Russian-Georgian conflict was diplomatic," said an impassioned VanDenHeuvel. "... Barack Obama understands the role Russia could play in reducing nuclear (weopons) in this world .. Barack Obama has spoken to the building of a nuclear-free world ... his instincts are good."
While most foreign policy intellectuals agree that the center of gravity of the war on terror must move and be fought aggressively in Afghanistan, there is division over how to deal with the problem of Russia. Russia represents a picture-perfect opportunity for President-elect Obama to sell out -- show machismo and overreact to Russia's bluster. There is even historical precedent -- and this President-elect is a serious student of History -- in JFK's handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, which, to this day, is lauded by even Kennedy's strongest enemoies on the right. What Katrina was saying is that she -- and like-minded Progressives -- hope that United States foreign policy enfolds Russia into the community of law-abiding nations and not react to the antagonisms its unruly antagonisms with the same historical illiteracy of the last occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, with the same tragic historical consequences.
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